Abstract

 
 
 The present research aimed to investigate the perceptions of the Malaysian Child Social Workers on emotions in their professional practice i.e. decision-making processes. Traditionally, decision-making is viewed as a rational process where reason indicates the best way to achieve a goal. However, many philosophers, neuroscientists and psychologists emphasise that the role of emotions in decision making is not exempted. The overall research strategy was ethnographic. The researchers used a mixture of methods including individual interviews, participant observation, and a questionnaire. The research was conducted in three locations in Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Petaling and Kota Kinabalu. Participants consisted of child protectors and rehabilitation officers from the Malaysia Welfare Department and medical social workers in hospitals. This paper presents an analysis of individual interviews in the three locations. A total of twenty-five interviews were conducted (twelve male, thirteen female; age range 29-51). Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The research findings revealed that the Malaysian child social workers tended to avoid emotions in their professional practice (i.e. decision- making processes), which might be due to the procedural practice. Based on the participants’ perceptions with regard to the use of emotions in decision-making proceses, the Malaysian child social workers’ understanding, knowledge and terms pertaining to emotions and their contributions in decision making were seemingly confined to the negative effects of emotions. Emotions, however, were not only characterised as disruptive but also viewed as having their ‘rationality’.
 
 
Highlights
Decision-making is one of the core tasks in social work practice
This paper explores Malaysian child social workers’ perceptions about emotions and their contributions in decision-making processes in the context of child and family social work in Malaysia
The participants seemed to perceive emotions as a negative element and commented that emotions and feelings should be avoided during professional practice, such as in decision-making processes
Summary
Decision-making is one of the core tasks in social work practice. Child and family social workers routinely make decisions that affect clients’ lives. There is a view that some heuristics are highly efficient and can compete with complex decision models in some application domains – for example, depending on readily available internal information and gut feelings in order to avoid long-term delays (Albar & Jetter, 2009) This strengthens the view that the most important role of emotions in decisionmaking is to guide behavioural decisions via motivational processes, allowing for fast actions (Zeelenberg et al, in Bohm, 2008). Miller and Mirza (2009) add that social workers sometimes make rational and ethical decisions based on rules and/or codes (codified), and at other times they tend to make decisions following factors other than the rules and/or codes (e.g. intuition) This means the social workers use both codified and non-codified rationales when dealing with ethical dilemmas. This paper explores Malaysian child social workers’ perceptions about emotions and their contributions in decision-making processes in the context of child and family social work in Malaysia
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